Through Lesotho on the Honda Transalp
By Peter Schlueter.
Peter runs the very popular Hard Enduro World page – hard enduro World and every year he comes to South Africa to spread The Roof Of Africa news…
Over the past few years that I have come to visit The Roof Of Africa, Honda has very kindly lent me an Africa Twin. This year, they surprised me with the new Honda XL750 Trans Alp.
I landed at OR Tambo after a 14 hour flight from Germany and was told that I would be visiting some customers – and then collecting the bike.
I had never ridden the new model up to this time and my introduction was a trip from the dealership through to the Dirt And Trail offices out in the country. 35 degree heat, no sleep and crazy Joburg traffic.Â
What could possibly go wrong?
From the first start, the XL feels safe and comfortable with a typical Honda quality feel, not unlike my Honda CBR1000 at home in Germany.
A short urban ride led out from the store just to get used to the South African taxis again – and we were soon on the freeway.
The Transalp is not as powerful as the 1100 Africa Twin, but much lighter and easier to handle in the traffic. She likes to rev, you don’t rely on the torque…
Home, bed and some sleep… all in a good first day back at my home away from home…
The weekend of the Roof came along and we headed for the Mountain Kingdom. Sean, who never goes slowly was on the 900 Norden, Donovan on the Suzuki DL 800 and the smallest of the lot, my 750 Transalp.
Did they wait for me?Â
Well no. Even though the Transalp is the smallest capacity, it is actually faster at the top than the DL on the road, naturally depending on who is riding. the Norden is a lot more powerful, but like all adventure trips, you cannot go fast all the time, so there are only a few minutes between each bike.
This bike handles so nicely. It’s really comfortable on the long road. You sit in the bike, not on it. It’s lower than the Africa Twin, which also gives you a sense of security.
You sit upright, not hunched over at all.
The digital display is logical and easy to read and it gives you all of the info that you need to know.
I was really impressed at the fuel consumption – an average of around 4.0 litres per 100 kilometres. Â
On a full sized 750, with this Uncle in the saddle. That’s very impressive.
The most fun was the Saturday afternoon Maseru traffic. You should try it some time! I love Africa. I got lost on my way back after the prize giving at Thaba Bosiu and had to slalom through lots of interesting weekend drivers.Â
I was grateful for the excellent lights – and for the fact that I was on a small, nimble bike… It makes city riding easy. The suspension is quite soft, and a few potholes and speed bumps snuck up on me. I would probably stiffen the bike up a bit.
In Lesotho, carving through the mountain passes up to Bushmans is where this bike and rider is happiest. the Transalp feels light and predictable – and I keep saying – easy to ride.Â
While you use the torque on the Africa Twin, on the 750, you need to gear down to get the power up. And, in my opinion, there is more than enough of that on tap. 130, 140 KPH all day long easily. The guys tell me that she runs right up past the 200kph mark and I can easily believe that.
The rider modes work really well. For every day riding, standard mode foots the bill for me.
When you want to open up a bit… Sports mode is more fun.
Spectator points were all along the tar road this year, so I did not get the opportunity to ride the bike on any long gravel roads. I can tell you that some gravel roads are better than the tar where we went.
All in, capable, comfortable, easy to ride with surprisingly good fuel consumption.Â
And that’s all really important stuff these days!
I missed the power of the bigger Africa Twin, but the smaller, lighter, easy to ride Transalp put a big smile on my face.
Until next year!
Peter.
You can get a new 750 TransAlp from R209 999 with R10000 deal assist, and free engine guard and bash plate from RockFox. Chat to your dealer.
